Gen Y Entrepreneur

June 21, 2008

What does your audience want?

The title of this post bears repeating. What does your audience really want? If you're going to be best in the world, then you ought to be able to figure this out.

It's not what they tell you they want. And if its a feature of your product, you're most likely wrong. You're supposed to sell the benefits, not the features, but I don't think the benefits are what you think they are.

As I mentioned in my last post, I think Steve Jobs is one of the most in-touch founders out there. Here's one of my all-time favorite quotes by him, in an interview with Newsweek (via SVN).

Q: Microsoft has
announced its new iPod competitor, Zune. It says that this device is
all about building communities. Are you worried?

A:
In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how
you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can
play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all
that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take
one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected
with about two feet of headphone cable.

Wait, what? Girl? Hint: The chief benefit of an iPod, for the 16-25 crowd is not about how to play music. Which is probably why they cut the FM receiver (a very cool feature, IMO) from the original design. It's a smaller, sleeker, sexier life.

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